Cerebus the Aardvark is done and dusted. In his place comes another extraordinary fictional creation: Sir Harry Flashman hero of the British Empire and all round scoundrel. Join me as I go through the Flashman Papers one damn chapter at a time. Books will also be reviewed and there will be the occasional rant.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Causality Casualty

The final chapter of Church & State. This was going to be good.

Lord Storm'send keeps talking and as he's stuck in the crack there's not a lot Cerebus can do about it. Storm'send is going on about false Popes and Cerebus can't work out why, although the farmer insists that it has to do with the end of the world.

Cerebus is rescued by the reappearance of Sophia. She proceeds to give him a good telling off (hooray!) and then says that her major problem with their relationship was that once he became Pope she felt that the nature of their relationship became perverse as she was making love to a God on earth.

She leaves as Cerebus is dragged by Lord Julius back into the wall. Julius tells him that Tarim is outside and he wants to talk. When Cerebus asks why they're going upstairs Julius says that's so he can look Tarim in the eye.

Outside the hotel is a giant stone golem clad in papal robes. Thrunk has returned, and he says he's Most Holy. Everyone believes him. I know I would.

Because Cerebus has gold that Thrunk believes belongs to him he has to get Cerebus out of the way. What follows is a great sequence of Thrunk's enormous stone fist trying to squash Cerebus and the aardvark using every evasive trick he knows to avoid the rock giant. Cerebus finds Bran. The former leader of the Pigts tells Cerebus he's made a mistake and then drives the point of a knife into his chest. The ritual suicide stuns even Cerebus and he can't get away when Thrunk's fist crashes through the wall and grabs him.

In something reminiscent of Cerebus' actions as Pope, Thrunk flings Cerebus away. The aardvark grabs a tree and manages to land on the head of one of the gargoyles carved into the mountain above the city. He can't maintain his grip and falls to bounce twice and end up on somewhere in the lower city.

It's going to be a long climb back to the top for everyone's favourite earth pig.